Exemplary embodiments of this disclosure relate to an electrical junction box to be installed, for example, in a motor vehicle or the like, and more particularly, relates to an electrical junction box including a cover member that can prevent a connector disposed on a connector-mounting section from coming out of the section.
Heretofore, an electrical junction box for a motor vehicle includes a cover member that may be provided on a connector-mounting section on which an important connector, for example an air bag connector, may be mounted. The cover member may serve to prevent the connector from coming out of the electrical junction box, thereby enhancing safety in the connection of the connector. Such a cover member has been disclosed in, for example, JP 2000-323232 A.
In the above electrical junction box, when the cover member is not used (e.g., during a standby state), the cover member may be held in a first rotary end position apart from the connector-mounting section utilizing a biasing force of a spring member interposed between the cover member and the connector-mounting section. This structure can prevent the cover member from engaging with the connector-mounting section by mistake, and can enable the connector to be attached to and detached from the connector-mounting section. When the connector is attached to the connector-mounting section, the cover member may be displaced from the first rotary end position apart from the connector-mounting section, to a second rotary end position, against the biasing force of the spring member, to engage the cover member with the connector, thereby restraining the connector from coming out of the connector-mounting section.
In a case where the cover member may be disposed to cover another adjacent electrical component-mounting section when the cover member is held in the first rotary end position apart from the connector-mounting section, the other electrical component cannot be attached to the other electrical component-mounting section on account of interference with the cover member. This can indicate incomplete engagement between the connector-mounting section and the connector and cover member. Accordingly, it is important to stably hold the cover member in the first rotary end position apart from the connector-mounting section during the standby state of the cover member.
Utilizing a spring member to hold the cover member in the first rotary end position increases the part count and complexity of the structure in the standby state of the cover member. Accordingly, a more simplified structure is provided in JP 2004-158374 A, which proposes a holding mechanism in which an engaging projection is provided on a rotary locus of the cover member between the cover member and the connector-mounting section, and in which the cover member is prevented from moving to the connector-mounting section when the engaging projection is engaged with the cover member.
However, in this design, the cover member is incorporated with the casing through the rotary support axes, and consequently, when the cover member causes backlash and play in an axial direction of the rotary axes, an engagement condition between the engaging projection and the cover member is released and the cover member cannot be held stably in the first rotary end position.